Although Chinese government officials in Henan Province were intent on going through with the privatization of a local state-owned steel mill, a protest involving thousands of workers and the taking of an official as a hostage seemed to put an end to the government’s aspirations. The protests mark a surge in activism in China’s crucial steel industry.
 
Chinese demonstrations have already turned bloody, with rioting workers having beat to death three weeks ago an executive that was trying to sell a different state-owned steel company. The death of the executive ended up postponing the sale of the steel mill, with the …read more

As any economist would tell you, any nationwide financial crisis will probably be accompanied by a rise in unemployment levels, and he would not have to think far back to offer an example. Although today’s financial crisis may not be close to ending, new evidence shows that unemployment may finally be shrinking rather than growing.
According to figures released by the Labor Department, the number of unemployment insurance applications has fallen by 4,000 to 621,000 from last week to this week. These numbers correlate with Labor Department predictions. Also, the Labor Department has also noticed a rise in worker productivity, a …read more

Graeme Neill, who blogs for UK-based theBookseller.com has a post today called: Author Sinha in hunger strike
The story is about Idera Sinha, author of novels the Animal’s People and The Death of Mr.Love, who began a hunger strike on 10th June in an attempt to bring American industrial company Dow Chemical to court in India to face criminal and civil charges relating to the tragedy because of a major chemical spill by that company in Bhopal, India back in 1984.
Arghhh… I’d forgotten all about the spill caused by an American company and might have assumed, if asked, that somehow the …read more